The present invention concerns an upholstering apparatus, and more particularly concerns an apparatus for applying upholstery to a part. It is very important to assemble upholstery and covering materials to covered structural parts, such as chairs, automotive door panels and the like, in a consistent manner so that there are no unsightly random wrinkles or creases in the covering materials. Historically, the assembly has been done manually, particularly on chairs or seats since it is difficult for a machine to adequately compensate for normal variations in chair seat substrates, chair seat cushions, and fabrics/covering materials. At least one manufacturer has attempted to solve this problem by redesigning the chair seat substrate to allow automated attachment of the edge of the upholstery/covering material to the seat substrate, but with limited success. Thus, the process of assembling upholstery/covering material to chairs has been and continues to be labor intensive.
Another problem is that adhesive coatings, whether applied by spraying or applied in the form of a manipulatable separate sheet, are expensive to apply. Specifically, it can be undesirably expensive to melt or cure the adhesive to adhere the upholstery material to the substrate. Still further, spraying adhesive can be very messy and the strength of adhesive bonding and overall quality of the end product difficult to control. Yet another problem is emissions from the adhesive as it is cured.
Thus, an automated upholstering apparatus solving the aforementioned problems and which is compatible with existing part designs is desired.